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I posted this as a reply in another thread but I wanted to repost, to give others a warning.

I purchased a 98 529i with an overheating issue, assumed head gasket. So I only paid 1,000.00 for it. After replacing all needed cooling components, I tore down for head gasket replacement. Head looked good, so I just replaced HG and retorqued, reassembled, and wallah...
Overheating and steam from exhaust. I realized that I should have redone leakdown right after last bolt was torqued. Dumb move. After removing head again, I bead blasted underside and the 6 major cracks from valve seats to water Jacket became painfully visible. Just waiting for a used head to arrive and bet your butt i will do a soda blast(not bead blast) to inspect before I put it on. This time I wont forget to test leakdown after torquing bolts. Really feel stupid wasting time on something I could have avoided.

Al
Ps got head for 325 plus 40 bucks shipping. Also this is a photo of the original HG after prev owner used a HG repair crap solution